So the people of Nineveh believed God

[Mary Naeem]

Pope Shenouda III

Jonah

The first fruit of the Ninevites was faith: "So the people of Nineveh believed God."

The second fruit was the unfeigned contrition of heart; humiliating themselves before the Lord. Thus they put on sackcloth "From the greatest to the least of them". And sackcloth is a rough material made of goats' hair; a sign of affliction, abstinence and rejection of worldly pleasures. Even the king of Nineveh himself took off his royal robe and covered himself with sackcloth, arose from his throne and sat in ashes.